General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Five of the six officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray are now in police custody [View all]Ms. Toad
(33,915 posts)mens rea refers to the mental state necessary to establish the commission of a particular crime. At common law, the mens rea for the crime charged is depraved heart. Under the Model Penal Code the mens rea for the equivalent crime is recklessly under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life.
The Maryland charging documents apparently use the term depraved heart murder even though that term does not appear in the statutes - but it appears to refer to the equivalent of the model penal code noted above. So - fast and loose only to the extent that I referred to the common law mens rea since that what the crime charged, rather then looking up the statute to retrieve the equivalent staututory mens rea.
My point is that depraved heart (or recklessly under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life) is the mindset of the person as he was committing a particular crime - not a label for his pervasive mental state.